Michigan Senate Candidate Abdul El-Sayed Responds to Call for Him to Be Shot

Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate from Michigan, responded after an audience member at the Republican midterm convention called for him to be shot.

The call to violence occurred as Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, addressed the Dallas crowd on the second night of the convention. Cruz singled out three Democrats: Texas Senate candidate James Talarico, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and El-Sayed. After each criticism, a man in the audience yelled, "He should be shot!" El-Sayed stated he is a dad with two daughters and hopes they get to grow up and live with their dad.

He described the incident as what has become norm in their politics, including literally calls to violence and the inability for anybody to actually call it out. El-Sayed urged everyone who heard the call to violence to condemn across the board and turn politics back into a conversation about what really matters. Vice President JD Vance criticized El-Sayed at the convention, stating El-Sayed verbally attacked his family.

Vance recounted visiting the steel mill where his grandfather worked for 40 years and claimed El-Sayed mockingly asked if Vance would bring his wife, Usha, back in time to meet his grandfather. Vance asserted El-Sayed looks at him and sees the color of his skin and decided his grandfather could never have loved their wife.

Mike Rogers, the Republican nominee for the Michigan Senate seat, claimed El-Sayed sympathizes with terrorists in a convention speech. El-Sayed has previously called for de-jailing the criminal legal system and eliminating cash bail, stating it disproportionately impacted Black people in a structurally racist society. In an October 2024 podcast, El-Sayed said prisons were designed as a form of counterinsurgent warfare waged by the state.

El-Sayed has led in six of eight major polls conducted on the Michigan Senate race since the August 4 primary. A CNN survey showed El-Sayed ahead of Rogers by three points, 47-44, with 40% of likely voters having a favorable view of El-Sayed, compared to 35% for Rogers. The Republican Jewish Coalition has called Dr. Abdul El-Sayed the most antisemitic U.S.